1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of natural resource management. More specifically, the present invention comprises a method and system for creating an efficient means of field sampling.
2. Description of the Related Art
A forested area is typically maintained by a public or private organization for timber production or some other need of society like water quality or wildlife conservation. In order to manage a forest one must consider the number of trees in a particular set area, or “stand.” If a stand is overstocked, the stand may be thinned to allocate resources to remaining crop trees. In order to obtain information for decisions such as thinning, samples are taken from points in a stand since it is impractical to sample all trees and conditions.
Typically, a forester is sent out to a point or multiple points to retrieve data relating to the forest stand. Each point represents a certain area such as a tenth of an acre for statistical sampling.
Global Positioning System (“GPS”) technology has allowed for the collection of data in the field. A forester carries a hand-held device and GPS technology provides positional data as he or she navigates the forest stand.
FIG. 1 shows a typical mobile device 22 used by a forester to collect data. The device 22 contains screen 12 and entry pad 14. Data can be entered using a stylus 13 on the screen or the entry pad. The graphical user interface displayed on screen 12 is illustrated in FIG. 2. The grid of sample points 18 on first graphical user interface 52 may correspond to the outline of a stand, tract or property. Sample point 18 is a position at which data will be collected for a particular portion of a stand. Typically a forester will need to visit a certain number of sample points 18 per day. As shown in FIG. 3, in order to visit each sample point 18, the forester must map out or choose a path of sampling 20. Generally, the forester will look at the points he wishes to visit and begin walking to each point 18 creating a path of sampling 20 as he or she goes, beginning at a starting point 17. It is desirable that the path of sampling 20 be as short as possible, while still visiting every point exactly once. In most instances the path 20 will pass back across points which have already been visited such as is shown in FIG. 3. Creating a path which maximizes point visits relative to travel is commonly known as the “travelling salesman problem” (“TSP”). TSP is a combinatorial optimization problem which an individual can rarely solve in the field. The end result is that foresters often do not take the most direct path of sampling 20 and thus travel farther and spend more time in the field per point than is necessary.
Therefore what is needed is a system and method of creating an efficient means of field sampling in natural resource management.